Mexico Tallying Economic Cost of Big Earthquake

Mexican officials are tallying up the economic losses of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that caused widespread damage in the capital, as the number of buildings that may need to be pulled down or need major repairs rose to 500.

 

The death toll in the quake rose to 333, with 194 of those deaths in Mexico City. Authorities pledged a return to normality, but many streets in the capital were still blocked by construction equipment and recovery teams looking to extract the last remaining bodies from the rubble. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said 40 to 50 people are still considered missing.

 

The city government announced a plan of reconstruction loans and aid for apartment dwellers who lost their homes or who may lose them as teetering buildings are pulled down.

 

But for city businesses like the downtown restaurant Guapa Papa, the result is already all too clear.

 

Sitting in the entrance of his restaurant Monday, surrounded by caution tape, Antonio Luna said: “This is a bust. It’s already closed due to structural damage to the building.”

 

He had to let go the three dozen employees at the 1950s-themed restaurant and is just trying to salvage whatever furniture and equipment wasn’t damaged.

 

“In the end the company let everyone go because it couldn’t continue having expenses,” Luna said.

 

Mancera said that the city, in alliance with private developers, would handle repairs on buildings that needed touch-ups or minor structural work to be habitable. He offered low-interest loans to apartment owners whose buildings would have to be demolished and rebuilt.

However, it is unclear to what extent the city can force owners to demolish buildings. Some that were damaged in the 1985 are still standing, in part because court challenges can stretch on for years.

 

Moody’s Investors Service said in a report Monday that the Sept. 19 earthquake that caused damage and deaths in the capital and nearby states “has the potential to be one of Mexico’s costliest natural catastrophes.”

 

Alfredo Coutino, Latin America director for Moody’s Analytics, said they were still collecting data on losses, but a preliminary estimate was that the earthquake could knock 0.1 to 0.3 percentage point off growth in Mexico’s gross domestic product in the third and fourth quarters.

 

For the full year, the impact on gross domestic product should be about 0.1 percentage point. “The impact on the year’s growth will be small, particularly considering that the reconstruction work will compensate for some of the total loss in activity during the fourth quarter,” Coutino said.

 

Money is expected to pour into the economy as Mexico City and the federal government tap their disaster funds. As of June, the city’s disaster fund stood at 9.4 billion pesos (more than $500 million), making it slightly larger than the national fund, according to a Moody’s Investors Services report.

 

Of course, the national fund also has to deal with recovery from the even stronger Sept. 7 quake that has been blamed for nearly 100 deaths, mostly in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

 

There will be months of work ahead from demolition to repairs and reconstruction.

 

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said that 500 “red level” buildings would either have to be demolished or receive major structural reinforcement. An additional 1,300 are reparable, and about 10,000 buildings inspected so far were found to be habitable.

At least 38 buildings, including apartments and office buildings, collapsed during the earthquake.

 

Mexico’s education ministry also has 1.8 million pesos (about $100,000) to spend on school repairs. In Mexico City alone, only 676 of the city’s 9,000 schools had been inspected and cleared to resume classes, Education Secretary Aurelio Nuno said Monday.

 

AIR Worldwide, a Boston-based catastrophe modeling consultant, provided a wide range for industry-insured losses, but noted they would be only a small part of the total economic losses. It put the insured losses at between 13 billion pesos ($725 million) and 36.7 billion pesos ($2 billion).

 

A graceful traffic roundabout encircled by restaurants, cafes and shops is now a sprawling expanse of medical tents, piles of food and other relief supplies, and stacks of building materials. While relief work went on outside Monday, men were busily wrapping furniture in foam and plastic inside the Antiguo Arte Europeo store.

 

Stone panels on the building’s facade appeared cracked or were altogether missing. Saleswoman Luisa Zuniga said the owners were waiting for civil defense inspectors to certify there was no structural damage to the building before reopening to the public.

 

Meanwhile, they were moving furniture that could still be sold to their other branches.

 

“Then we’ll see how long it takes to fix everything,” she said. “It is important to get back to work.”

 

Edgar Novoa, a fitness trainer, went back to his job Monday after working as a volunteer following the earthquake. Around midday, he stopped his bicycle at a cleared foundation where a building of several stories had stood near his home.

 

He knelt and prayed while others left flowers and candles at the site.

 

The government has said that nine foreigners, including five from Taiwan, died in the quake. One of the buildings that collapsed in the quake housed a business listed as Asia Jenny Importaciones, SA de CV. A South Korean man was also confirmed dead.

 

A Panamanian woman died, as did one man from Spain and one from Argentina.

Brazil’s Top Prosecutor Says Committed to ‘Car Wash’ Probe

Brazil’s new Prosecutor General Raquel Dodge said on Tuesday she is committed to continuing the sprawling “Car Wash” corruption investigation that has implicated dozens of Brazilian politicians, including President Michel Temer.

In her first news conference since taking office on Sept. 18, Dodge declined to comment on charges filed against Temer by her predecessor Rodrigo Janot, but she said she could not withdraw them.

Janot charged Temer with obstruction of justice and being a member of a criminal organization days before leaving office based on plea bargain testimony by the owners of meatpacker JBS SA. Janot had to revoke that plea deal after evidence emerged of crimes committed by the witnesses.

Dodge, however, told reporters that the revoking of a plea deal did not erase the evidence provided.

The lower house of Congress, which has the authority to decide whether a president should stand trial, began to discuss the new charges on Tuesday and is expected to block them as it did last month with an earlier graft charge brought against Temer for allegedly accepting bribes paid by JBS.

Dodge said the Supreme Court must decide whether the Federal Police can also negotiate plea bargains with criminals, an authority currently limited to prosecutors who have opposed sharing the function with the police.

Plea bargains have been instrumental for prosecutors in the uncovering of a massive network of bribes and political kickbacks in Brazil’s largest corruption scandal.

“I am sure that the Supreme Court will hand down a ruling that will turn this into an valuable tool,” she said.

Twitter to Test 280-character Tweets, Busting Old Limit

The days of Twitter limiting messages to 140 characters, a signature of the social network since its launch in 2006, may be numbered.

Twitter said on Tuesday that it would begin a test with a random sample of users allowing them to send tweets that are as long as 280 characters, double the existing cap, in most languages around the world.

The San Francisco-based company has stood by its short messages as a defining characteristic – like chirps from a bird, which is the company logo – even as users found ways around the limit, such as posting photos of text.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter said its emphasis on brevity would never change but that it had been wondering whether people could express themselves easily enough, hurting the service’s popularity.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet – we’ve all been there, and it’s a pain,” Twitter project manager Aliza Rosen and senior software engineer Ikuhiro Ihara said in the post.

The employees acknowledged some users may have an “emotional attachment” to the current limit.

News reports in January 2016 said that Twitter was running internal tests for longer tweets and considering a limit as high as 10,000 characters.

Though Twitter is ubiquitous in media because of frequent use by U.S. President Donald Trump and many celebrities, the company has struggled financially. For the second quarter, it reported a loss of $116 million and zero growth in the number of users, at 328 million people. Facebook Inc has 2 billion users.

A higher character limit was inspired by how people use Twitter when writing in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, the company said.

Characters in those languages can often express more than Roman characters can, meaning those users already, in effect, have a higher limit. They also use Twitter more often.

“In all markets, when people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting,” the two employees wrote.

The test of 280 characters will run for an unspecified number of weeks in all languages except Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Twitter said. The company declined to say how many people would be included in the test.

The 140-character limit originated from the use of SMS text messages. Twitter’s founders, including Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, wanted a limit just below the SMS cap of 160 characters.

Trump Endorses Spanish Unity Days Before Scheduled Catalan Independence Vote

U.S. President Donald Trump has come out unequivocally in favor of Spanish unity, just days before voters in the Catalan region are slated to vote on independence from Madrid.

At a joint news conference Tuesday with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a sweltering White House Rose Garden, Trump said he would bet most Catalonians want unity.

“I’m just for a united Spain,” Trump said. “I really think the people of Catalonia would stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to.”

Trump’s comments appear to go against official U.S. government policy. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said this month the United States would not take a position on the Catalan vote.

The Catalan government is pushing ahead with preparations for Sunday’s vote, even after the government declared the balloting illegal and Spain’s Constitutional Court suspended the referendum law.

The Spanish leader, speaking after Trump, cautioned Catalan separatists not to push ahead with their independence plans.

“The decision to unilaterally declare independence is not a decision I would make,” Rajoy told reporters. “It’s a decision which will have to be made or not by the Catalan government. I think it would be very wrong.”

The prime minister said holding a referendum next Sunday would be impossible.

“There isn’t an electoral committee, there isn’t a team at the Catalan government organizing the referendum, there aren’t ballots, there aren’t people at the voting stations — so it’s just crazy,” he said.

Rajoy said under those circumstances, the result would not be valid, and would only be a distraction.

“The only thing it’s doing is generating division, tensions, and it’s not contributing in any way to the citizens’ situation,” he said.

Trump said he could not predict whether the referendum would be held, even as he follows developments in the independence-minded province.

“I’ve been watching that unfold. But it’s actually been unfolding for centuries and I think that nobody knows if they’re going to have a vote,” he said.

“I think the president [Rajoy is considered president of the Spanish government] would say they’re not going to have a vote, but I think that the people would be very much opposed to that,” Trump told reporters. “I can say only speaking for myself, I would like to see Spain continue to be united.”

Catalonia divided

Opinion polls suggest that Catalonia’s population of more than 7 million is divided on the independence question. Catalan officials have said they would declare independence within days if voters approve the referendum.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Rajoy, whose country was victimized by an Islamic State-sponsored attack in August that killed 16 people in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, said he and Trump had spent a considerable amount of their meeting talking about terrorism.

“We’ve been hit by jihadi terrorist attacks on our soil,” he told reporters, noting that the two countries cooperate closely on anti-terrorism strategies. “We still need to do a lot in the area of intelligence, we need to improve coordination mechanisms in the area of cybersecurity or preventing recruitment and financing of terrorists.”

Rajoy also expressed support for Trump’s tough response to North Korea’s provocative nuclear missile tests, despite fears in some quarters that it could lead to war.

“No one wishes war anywhere in the world,” Rajoy said. “But it’s true that the recent events in North Korea, with implications in the neighboring countries, very important countries, it means that we all have to be forceful.

“Those of us who defend the values of democracy, freedom and human rights have to let North Korea know that it isn’t going anywhere in that direction,” the Spanish leader said.

Spanish Police to Take Over Catalan Polling Stations to Thwart Independence Vote

Spain’s government said on Tuesday police would take control of voting booths in Catalonia to help thwart the region’s planned independence referendum that Madrid has declared illegal.

The dispute has plunged Spain into one of its biggest political crises since the restoration of democracy in the 1970s after decades of military dictatorship.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said the referendum is against the law and the constitutional court has ordered it be halted while its legality is determined. Catalonia’s separatist government, however, remains committed to holding it on Sunday.

Rajoy, speaking on Tuesday alongside U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, said it would be “ridiculous” if the affluent northeastern region declared independence from Spain.

Trump said he opposed the referendum and wanted a united Spain. “I really think the people of Catalonia would stay with Spain. I think it would be foolish not to,” he told reporters.

Senior Spanish government officials said on Tuesday authorities had done enough to prevent a meaningful referendum as Catalonia lacked an election commission, ballot boxes, ballot papers, a transparent census and election material.

Logistics have been dismantled

“Today we can affirm that there will be no effective referendum in Catalonia. All the referendum’s logistics have been dismantled,” the Spanish government’s representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo, told reporters in Barcelona.

Catalonia’s prosecutor has ordered the regional police — known as the Mossos d’Esquadra — to take control of any voting booths by Saturday, a spokesman for the Madrid government’s Catalan delegation said.

In an order to police issued on Monday, the prosecutor’s office said they would take the names of anyone participating in the vote and confiscate relevant documents.

Anyone in possession of the keys or entrance codes to a polling booth could be considered a collaborator to crimes of disobedience, malfeasance and misappropriation of funds, the order said.

Unrelenting opposition

The Madrid government has in recent weeks taken political and legal measures to prevent the referendum by exerting more control over the use of public funds in Catalonia and arresting regional officials. Hundreds of police reinforcements have been brought into Barcelona and other cities.

Madrid has also threatened fines against bureaucrats working on the ballot, including the region’s election commission, which was dissolved last week.

These actions have provoked mass demonstrations and drawn accusations from Catalan leaders that the Madrid government was resorting to the repression of the Franco dictatorship.

Catalan government to hold election

A “yes” vote is likely, given that most of the 40 percent of Catalans who polls show support independence are expected to cast ballots while most of those against it are not.

But the unrelenting opposition from Madrid means such a result would go all but unrecognized, potentially setting up a new phase of the dispute.

The Catalan regional government, which plans to declare independence within 48 hours of a “yes” victory, maintained on Tuesday the vote will go ahead and it sent out notifications to Catalans to man polling booths across the region.

Many had not yet received information about where or when they would be working after the state-run postal service was ordered to stop all mail related to the vote, a parliamentary spokeswoman for one separatist party said.

Businesses Give $300M Toward K-12 Computer Science Education

A coalition of businesses including Amazon, Google and General Motors has agreed to give $300 million to boost K-12 computer science programs across the U.S.

Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman announced Tuesday that the private-sector contribution will come in over the next five years. Beckerman led a panel discussion at a downtown Detroit high-rise that featured President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump.

Her visit to Detroit came a day after the president announced a plan to spend at least $200 million annually on competitive grants so schools can broaden access to computer science education.

“Knowing how to code is really foundational toward success in any industry, not just tech narrowly defined,” Ivanka Trump said.

Just before Ivanka Trump arrived on stage, Beckerman announced the private-sector contribution.

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.org are giving $50 million apiece; Lockheed Martin is promising $25 million; Accenture is committing more than $10 million; and General Motors and Pluralsight have pledged $10 million toward the effort. Additionally, Detroit-based Quicken Loans announced that it will work to make sure that 15,000 Detroit Public Schools students receive computer science training.

Ivanka Trump said it is crucial that young people, especially girls and racial minorities, learn how to write computer code and study computer science.

“We have to do better. We are going to do better, and this is a giant leap forward in that direction,” she said during the panel discussion, which also included Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans; Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org; Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org; and Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin.

Gilbert said teaching schoolchildren computer science “isn’t one of these things where maybe this will work.

“This is the answer. This is flat-out the answer,” said Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA.

Architects Seek Plastic Bottles to Build Shelters for Mexico Quake Homeless

Tens of thousands of empty plastic bottles could be filled with rubble and earth to build quake-resistant emergency shelters for people who were made homeless in Mexico’s recent tremors, said architects who are urging people to donate bottles.

Starting in the shattered town of Jojutla in Morelos state, near the epicenter of last Tuesday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the proposal aims to help locals build cheap shelters big enough for two to four people, made from bottles filled with the debris of their collapsed homes.

“Right now, people are sleeping in the street, in the rubble, in the rain. So we need housing now — we can’t wait for the moment the government decides it’s going to help,” said Ana Vanessa Rendon Zuniga, one of three architects who set up the Viviendas Emergentes (Emergency Housing) campaign (VIEM).

“There are millions of bottles among the donations of supplies that have arrived. … Our plan is to go to the communities and show them how to build these homes,” she added.

Last week’s quake, which shook Mexico City and surrounding states, killed 331 people and damaged 11,000 homes, with many survivors now living in tents or emergency housing.

It followed an 8.1 magnitude tremor that rattled poorer southern states, including Oaxaca and Chiapas, earlier this month, leaving about 100 dead and millions in need of aid.

The campaign’s organizers have asked people to donate empty bottles with caps at collection centers in Mexico City and elsewhere, along with the tools, wire mesh and wood needed to build the homes.

About 2,000 filled bottles are needed for each emergency shelter.

The flexibility of plastic bottles means they are four times more resistant to earthquakes than concrete, said Eduardo Garcia Valencia, president of the group Liderazgo Joven (Youth Leadership). It helps builds permanent homes using “bottle bricks,” where bottles are filled with sand and earth.

Many of the homes destroyed in the quakes were of traditional adobe construction, using sun-dried earth and other organic materials.

Working with VIEM, Garcia’s organization plans to convert some temporary homes into permanent dwellings and raise funds to help quake-hit communities build new houses, he said. He calculates it takes up to 15,000 plastic or glass bottles to construct a two-bedroom home.

But changing people’s attitudes toward bottle houses will be key, as some still have concerns about the safety of the buildings, which experts say can also withstand hurricanes.

“We’ve heard comments that they’re not good, that it’s not safe to be in a house of PET,” said Rendon, referring to the material used to make plastic bottles. “But there are many people who have lived in houses like this for 20 years and the houses are still good. It’s a decent way to live.”

Top NAFTA Negotiators Join Talks as US Presents Draft Text on Labor

The United States on Tuesday unveiled draft text on labor standards during the negotiations on modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement as top officials from Canada, the United States and Mexico joined talks in Ottawa.

The U.S. said the labor proposal would ensure enforceable mechanisms to raise labor standards in the NAFTA but Canadian labor unions said it was inadequate.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo joined the talks on Tuesday.

The countries are rushing to reach an agreement by the end of the year before Mexico’s presidential campaign begins, a deadline that former trade negotiators have said is unrealistic.

The labor proposal is the latest of three new draft texts presented by the U.S. in Ottawa. U.S. proposals on investment and intellectual property were also presented in this round after U.S. negotiator John Melle said “more challenging issues will start taking center stage.”

Labor leaders of the two wealthier NAFTA nations say laxer labor standards and lower pay in Mexico have swelled corporate profits at the expense of Canadian and U.S. workers, making the issue one of the major battlegrounds of the NAFTA talks.

Officials with knowledge of the U.S. proposal said it did not detail wage levels for workers. Mexican business leaders have argued that workers’ rights and pay is an internal issue for each country to resolve.

“With President Trump as one of labor’s biggest supporters, the United States has put forward a detailed proposal that replaces the original NAFTA’s toothless approach on labor with enforceable provisions to benefit workers across America,” USTR spokeswoman Emily Davis said.

“The United States’ advocacy for workers includes seeking commitments from Mexico and Canada to respect collective bargaining and other core labor standards,” she added.

Canadian labor union leaders said the U.S. proposal resembled text outlined in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact with many Asian nations which Trump withdrew the U.S. from.

“The U.S. proposal makes no sense to me,” Jerry Dias, president of Canada’s UNIFOR labor union, told reporters. “The American proposal is the TPP proposal with a bit of a twist, which isn’t going to resolve the issues” of better working conditions.

Teamsters Canada spokesman Christopher Monette said the Canadian proposal on labor went further in pushing for improved working conditions in all three NAFTA countries.

“It is inadequate,” Monette said of the U.S. draft text. U.S. Congressman Sandy Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, who was in Ottawa at the weekend, cautioned on Monday that the Democratic party would not support a revised NAFTA agreement without “dramatic change” in Mexico’s labor standards.

“Mexico’s so called ‘comparative advantage’ not only condemns numerous Mexican workers to working in or near poverty, but it lowers wages and rips away jobs from workers in the United States, especially in the auto industry,” he told the Council on Foreign Relations.

USTR’s Davis said the negotiations were “progressing at an unprecedented pace” with the U.S. presenting text in 27 NAFTA chapters in the five weeks since talks began.

Canadian and Mexican officials, however, have complained that the U.S. side has been slow to present proposals on the biggest issues which are likely to take time to negotiate.

A joint statement on the Ottawa round is expected at 2:30 p.m. New York time (1830 GMT) on Wednesday. The next round of talks will be held in Washington around Oct. 11.

Asked by reporters in Ottawa about the lack of specific proposals on key issues, chief U.S. negotiator John Melle, “We’ve been working very hard so I don’t see a problem.”

The thorniest issue in the talks, NAFTA’s rules of origin that determine how much of a product needs to originate in the NAFTA region, was discussed on Tuesday, according to a copy of the agenda obtained by Reuters, but the United States has still to present its demands on the issue.

The Trump administration wants more substantial U.S. content in autos, the main source of the $64-billion trade deficit with Mexico and the $11-billion deficit with Canada.

The United States draft text on NAFTA investment did not elaborate on changes to the dispute mechanism that allows an investor from a NAFTA country to sue a member government, according to two sources with knowledge of discussions.

After German Election, France’s Macron Paints Sweeping Vision for Europe

French President Emmanuel Macron offered an ambitious vision for European renewal Tuesday, calling for the EU to work more closely on defense and immigration and for the eurozone to have its own budget, ideas he may struggle to implement.

In a nearly two-hour speech delivered two days after the German election in which Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc scored its worst result since 1949, limiting her freedom to maneuver on Europe, the 39-year-old French president held little back in terms of sweep, self-assurance and aspiration.

But at a time when Europe is beset by tensions between east and west and battling to overcome nearly a decade of draining economic crisis, Macron’s earnest and at times high-brow discourse ran the risk of falling on deaf ears.

Speaking at the Sorbonne, he portrayed Europe as needing to relaunch itself, saying that on issues as diverse as asylum, border protection, corporate tax, intelligence sharing, defense and financial stability it needed much deeper cooperation.

“The only path that assures our future is the rebuilding of a Europe that is sovereign, united and democratic,” the former investment banker and philosophy student said, flanked by a French and a European Union flag.

“At the beginning of the next decade, Europe must have a joint intervention force, a common defense budget and a joint doctrine for action.”

Germany’s limitations

In his run for the presidency, Macron made European reform a central plank of his centrist campaign, and he and Merkel have spoken frequently about their desire for France and Germany, the European Union’s two largest economies and often its engines of change, to take the lead on integration.

But five months into his five-year term, Macron faces the threat that Merkel, 63 and looking to start her fourth term, has less capacity to move than either would have hoped.

Her alliance is still the largest bloc in the Bundestag, but to build a working majority she will likely have to form a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), who are opposed to many of Macron’s ideas.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a senior member of the Social Democrats (SPD), hailed Macron’s speech “a passionate plea against nationalism and for Europe.”

“He can count on us,” said Gabriel, whose party has ruled out being part of a new grand coalition.

Rather than tailoring his speech to fit the contours of what the FDP, the Greens or Merkel may have wanted to hear, Macron kept his vision broad and far-reaching, while also detailing some specific ideas for an improved eurozone.

“A budget can only go hand in hand with strong political leadership led by a common [finance] minister and a strong parliamentary supervision at the European level,” he said, emphasizing the need for democratic accountability.

The fiscally conservative FDP dislikes the idea of a eurozone budget or any facility that may lead to financial transfers from wealthier eurozone countries to poorer ones, as well as the possibility of national debt being pooled.

The party has also called for phasing out Europe’s ESM bailout fund, which Macron wants to turn into a European Monetary Fund, and wants to see changes to EU treaties that would allow countries to leave the eurozone.

“You don’t strengthen Europe with new pots of money,” Alexander Lambsdorff, an FDP member in the European Parliament, said on Twitter in reaction to Macron’s speech.

In a statement issued by the FDP in Berlin, Lambsdorff said: “The problem in Europe is not a lack of public funds, but the lack of reform. A euro zone budget would set exactly the wrong incentives.”

2024 goal

Not shying away from addressing Germany directly even as it tries to resolve the fallout from Sunday’s election, Macron set an objective that the two countries completely integrate their markets and corporate rules by 2024.

“We share the same European ambitions and I know her commitment to Europe,” he said of Merkel. “I’m proposing to Germany a new partnership. We will not agree on everything, not immediately, but we will discuss everything.”

In Berlin on Monday, Merkel said it was important to move beyond catchphrases and provide detail on how Europe could be improved. It was not immediately clear whether Macron had managed to go beyond slogans as far as Merkel was concerned.

But Martin Selmayr, the chief of staff of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said the proposals to reinforce the eurozone would be discussed alongside Juncker’s own at a eurozone summit planned for December.

Italy’s EU affairs minister, Sandro Gozi, said the speech would inspire European leaders into action.

“An excellent speech by Emmanuel Macron on reviving the European Union. Let’s work on this together, starting tomorrow at the Lyon Summit,” he said, referring to a meeting of the Italian and French leaders to discuss industrial policy.

Macron said he hoped his ideas would be taken into account in Germany’s coalition building negotiations. Those talks are not expected to begin until mid-October and may take several months.

“Some had said I should wait for the coalition talks to be concluded,” Macron said, adding had he done so, the reaction in Berlin would have been: “Your proposals are great but it’s too late, the coalition deal already lays out what will we do on Europe for the next four years.”

Venezuela Opposition Won’t Attend Scheduled Talks With Government

Venezuela’s opposition said on Tuesday it will not join scheduled talks with President Nicolas Maduro’s government, undercutting a dialogue effort that has been viewed with suspicion by many adversaries of the ruling Socialist Party.

The government has eagerly promoted the talks amid global criticism that Maduro is turning the country into a dictatorship, while the opposition has always insisted the talks should not distract from the country’s economic crisis.

The two sides held separate exploratory conversations with the president of the Dominican Republic earlier this month. But the opposition said the government has not made enough progress on issues such as human rights to warrant full bilateral talks.

“Negotiation is not to go and waste time, to look at someone’s face, but rather so that Venezuelans can have immediate solutions,” opposition leader Henrique Capriles told reporters.

“We cannot have a repeat of last year’s failure,” he said, referring to Vatican-brokered talks in 2016 that fell apart after the opposition said the government was simply using them as a stalling tactic.

The Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The opposition wants a date for the next presidential election, due by the end of 2018, with guarantees it will be free and fair. It is also calling for freedom for hundreds of jailed activists, a foreign humanitarian aid corridor and respect for the opposition-led congress.

With Spain pushing for the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government, Maduro may be hoping to dodge further sanctions.

The United States has issued several rounds of sanctions against Venezuela, primarily in response to the creation of an all-powerful super body called the Constituent Assembly that was elected in a July vote the opposition labeled fraudulent.

Many countries have refused to recognize the assembly, which Maduro insists has brought peace to the country of 30 million. He says opposition leaders are coup-plotters seeking to sabotage socialism in oil-rich Venezuela under the guise of peaceful protests.

Amid a fourth straight year of recession, millions of Venezuelans are suffering food shortages and rampant inflation, which the government blames on an “economic war” led by the opposition and fueled by recent sanctions.

 

 

Around The World, Flags and Anthems Can Divide Nations

President Donald Trump’s clash with scores of professional football players who knelt during “The Star-Spangled Banner” last weekend has set off a heated debate over proper etiquette during the national anthem. But the U.S. is far from alone.

Throughout the world, flags, anthems and other national symbols can often divide as much as they unify, especially in countries with large religious or ethnic divisions.

 

Here is a look at some of the controversies:

Israel

 

Israel’s Arab minority has long felt disconnected from the national symbols of the Jewish state.

 

Israel’s national anthem “The Tikva,” or “the hope,” expresses the yearning of Jews to return to their ancient homeland. The Star of David is emblazoned on the flag and the national emblem is a menorah, a candelabra used in the biblical Temple in Jerusalem.      

 

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s citizens. But they often face discrimination, and many feel alienated or identify with their Palestinian brethren.

 

Some Arab players on Israel’s national soccer team have expressed discomfort when the anthem is played before matches. An Arab lawmaker, Hanin Zoabi, boycotted the national anthem when she was sworn into Israel’s parliament.

 

Arabs are not the only minority in Israel to reject its national symbols. Some ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects are anti-Zionist, and members refuse to join the army or participate in national moments of silence on two separate days of remembrance – for fallen soldiers and Holocaust victims.   

 

China

 

China’s national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” has occasionally been a political flashpoint in the semiautonomous region of Hong Kong.

 

Soccer fans in Hong Kong, where tension is rising over mainland China’s growing influence, have been known to boo the anthem when it’s played at games between the home team and teams from China or other countries. FIFA, the sport’s governing body, has responded by fining the local soccer association.

The Beijing government passed a new law this month that makes improper use of the anthem punishable by up to 15 days in prison. Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers fear it could be used to undermine freedom of speech in Hong Kong.

 

It’s unclear how the law will be implemented in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from the mainland.

Russia

 

One of Vladimir Putin’s most resounding steps in his first year as president in 2000 was to re-introduce the Soviet anthem to replace “The Patriotic Song” by the 19th century composer Mikhail Glinka, which was Russia’s anthem between 1991 and 2000.

 

Putin floated the idea in the fall 2000 after some Russian athletes publicly complained that the Patriotic Song has no lyrics and they could not sing along as athletes in other countries do. Soviet poet Sergei Mikhalkov, who authored the original lyrics for the Soviet anthem, was commissioned to write the new ones.

 

Liberal politicians and media criticized the return of the Soviet anthem as an ominous harbinger of a rollback on reforms and freedoms brought about after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Japan

 

Japan’s anthem “Kimigayo,” or “your reign,” was taken from an ancient poem and widely known as a song dedicated to the emperor.

 

The song has long been controversial and is still politically sensitive because it was once used to glorify the emperor and to drum up support for Japan’s wartime militarism, prompting some pacifist teachers and students to refuse to stand up and sing at graduation ceremonies or other commemorative events.

 

“Kimigayo” was officially stipulated as the national anthem in 1999 following years of pressure by Japan’s conservative ruling party, and singing it has been mostly enforced at most public schools, in part due to fear of punishment for failing to do so.

Singing “Kimigayo” and hoisting the national flag is often considered a rightwing statement, though it is less so now, while ultra-rightists typically use the Rising Sun flag in their social media cover photos.

 

Germany

 

Germany bans any display of the Nazi red, black and white flag with the swastika, as well as any other symbols from the period.

 

Violating the ban can lead to charges of incitement. It also bans the use of any Nazi anthems and even things like the stiff-armed so-called “Hitler salute.”

 

That led to difficulties for several tourists this summer – one American and two Chinese – who were investigated by police after giving the salute in public.

 

India

 

India has long been touchy about perceived slights to its national symbols.

Though Indian law doesn’t require people to stand when the country’s national anthem is played, a Supreme Court ruling last year demanded it from all citizens. The court also ruled that movie theaters must resume a tradition of playing the anthem before any film, and said all those present “must stand up in respect.”

Citizens caught burning or otherwise desecrating India’s tri-color flag can also be punished by up to three years in prison. But nothing irks the country’s leadership more than maps that question the country’s borders.

 

The issue has most often flared over the borders drawn around the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims, as well as the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, contested by China.

 

India routinely criticizes its neighbors as well as companies like Google or Twitter when they publish maps ascribing Indian-controlled territories to either Pakistan or China. Last year, lawmakers drafted legislation threatening up to $15 million and seven years in prison for drawing and publishing an incorrect map.

 

Egypt

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a former general, has emphasized patriotism as a cornerstone of his political discourse since taking office in 2014. His public displays of patriotism, like ending speeches with “long live Egypt!” three times, has fueled nationalism, even jingoism, in media loyal to him.

 

For the first time in living memory, on the first day of classes in state universities this month, students saluted the red, black and white flag as they chanted the national anthem.

 

The new practice, which is not obligatory, was celebrated by the pro-government media as a welcome demonstration of patriotism, but also provided rich material for satire on social media.

 

Former Yugoslavia

 

In 1995 at the European basketball championship in Athens, there was controversy during the medal ceremony right before the winning Yugoslav team, made up mostly of Serbs, were about to receive their gold medals.

 

The third-placed Croatian team, in an unprecedented move, stepped down from the medal podium and walked off the court minutes before the old Yugoslav anthem was to be played. The two former Yugoslav republics were at war in the 1990s. Even today, when they meet in sports events, the anthems are loudly booed by the fans.

 

Indonesia

 

Malaysia apologized to its much bigger neighbor Indonesia last month for an “unintentional” mistake in printing the Indonesian flag upside down in a souvenir guidebook for the 11-nation Southeast Asian Games it was hosting.

 

The error made the red-and-white Indonesian flag resemble Poland’s and caused anger in Indonesia, where “shameonyoumalaysia” became the most popular hashtag on Twitter.

 

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo demanded an apology but also cautioned against exaggerating the incident.

 

France

 

France hasn’t seen take-a-knee protests, but there has been a long-running debate over whether French soccer players should sing the national anthem at international matches. Many French players don’t, but it’s generally out of indifference instead of political protest. The issue resurfaces at the World Cup and other soccer tournaments, often raised by the far right.

 

France has seen taunts from fans during the national anthem at soccer matches in the past, notably from Corsican separatists and French fans of North African descent. As interior minister in 2003, Nicolas Sarkozy backed a law that made it a misdemeanor to insult the national flag and anthem.

 

More broadly, French national symbols were long associated with the nationalist far-right, and it was seen as OK in many quarters to snub them. Attitudes have shifted as France has faced terrorist attacks in recent years, and it’s becoming more and more common to see people of varying political views flying a French flag and singing the anthem.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Donates $5M to Alma Mater Bowdoin

Netflix chief executive officer and Bowdoin College graduate Reed Hastings says he’s donating $5 million to the school to help traditionally under- represented students graduate.

The “Thrive” program offers academic assistance for low-income students and first-generation students at the Brunswick-area college. The Portland Press Herald reports Hastings will work with four educators to develop the program and will meet annually with students in Thrive.

Bowdoin President Clayton Rose says Hastings’ gift will make it possible to work with students who often have difficulties in transitioning to college.

Russia Threatens to Block Facebook Next Year

Russia has threatened to ban Facebook from operating in the country if it does not comply with a law regarding the storage of user data.

The law, passed in 2014, requires telecommunication companies to store the personal data of Russians inside Russia.  It has been criticized as a way for the Russian government to force companies to hand over data on users.

The head of Roskomnadzor, the government’s telecoms watchdog, Alexander Zharov, told reporters, “The law is compulsory for all.  We will work on getting Facebook to observe the law.  This will all happen in 2018 definitely.”

Should Facebook choose not to comply with the law, Zharov said the company would be banned from Russia.

Last year, Russian authorities banned the professional networking website LinkedIn after they said the company violated Russian law.

Facebook is used heavily by Russian opposition groups to organize protests and share political messaging.

The announcement by Russian authorities comes several days after Facebook revealed that accounts with alleged Russian ties were used to post ads related to the 2016 U.S. election.

Facebook has said it would share those ads with U.S. authorities.

 

US Envoy: Russia’s Proposal to Send Peacekeepers to Ukraine Shows Desire to Negotiate

Russia’s proposal for United Nations peacekeepers to be sent to Ukraine shows that the Kremlin is interested in negotiating a resolution to the three-year-old conflict, said the United States special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker.

“I take the point of view that Russia would not have proposed anything if they weren’t prepared to get into a negotiation about it,” said Volker in an interview Monday with VOA’s Ukrainian Service chief Myroslava Gongadze.

“They haven’t done anything for three years on this. They haven’t proposed a peacekeeping force before. As recently as a couple weeks ago, they were saying that they would never want the U.N. there. So, the fact that they opened this conversation, to me, is an indication that they are willing to discuss it.”

The Ukraine crisis began in March 2014 when Russian special forces took over Ukrainian military bases in Crimea. Subsequent Russian military support for Russia-leaning separatists in eastern Ukraine fueled an ongoing conflict with the Ukrainian military that has so far left more than 10,000 people dead.

Russia’s proposal earlier this month at the U.N. called for peacekeepers along the line of conflict in eastern Ukraine, but not along the Russia-Ukraine border where weapons and fighters can easily cross.

Volker called it a “very narrow concept” that would have the effect of dividing the country even further.

 

“That’s not acceptable to anybody and does not restore the territory,” he said. “On the other hand, if we can establish a peacekeeping force and build that concept into one that is covering the entire contested area, that is containing heavy weapons and that is controlling the Ukraine-Russian border from the Ukrainian side, then there is a lot of promise in that.”

“That’s where both governments are right now seeing whether it is possible to expand this concept into one that would be truly meaningful and helpful,” he added.

Russia’s growing costs

Russia’s costs for maintaining the conflict in Ukraine have only gone up while benefits the Kremlin may have expected have not panned out, said Volker. Russia has lost influence in Ukraine while Western support for Kyiv has increased along with sanctions against Moscow.

“So, for all of these reasons, the costs are increasing. Even the financial costs of just maintaining the Donbas, and they’re not getting anything out of it. So, that at least opens the door to thinking maybe Russia would like to try something else,” Volker said.

 

“Ultimately, I think it really boils down to Russia’s decision-making,” he added. “Do they want to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, get their forces out, and re-establish Ukraine’s territorial integrity or, do they not want to do that? If they want to dig in and create another Abkhazia [breakaway region of Georgia supported by Russia], they can do it. But, that’s a very costly proposition for Russia.”

A 2015 peace deal Russia signed with Ukraine, Germany, and France in Minsk has failed to come to fruition as Kyiv and Moscow blame each other for not moving on the plan.

 

“The problem with the Minsk agreement is that it was becoming a circular argument that was going nowhere,” said Volker. “The Russians are saying ‘no, Ukraine has to do the political steps.’ Ukraine says, ‘it can’t do the political steps because it can’t even access the territory.’ And, then how can we go to the Rada [Ukrainian parliament] and get a vote when nothing has happened on a ceasefire in three years. So, it’s stuck that way and I think, in some respects, some of the actors found that to be conveniently stuck.”

Volker said the U.S. role was to try to unstick the Minsk deal.

“If we can get to a more strategic level of decision-making with Russia and, frankly, with our European partners and with Ukraine, then if we can create political will, Minsk is a perfectly fine vehicle for implementation,” he said.

In August, the U.S. envoy met with Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov in Minsk.  Surkov is considered the architect of Russia’s strategy on Ukraine and its military backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Status quo:  Bad for all

“When we met in August, one of the things we agreed is that the status quo is not good for anybody,” said Volker. “It’s not good for Russia, it’s not good for Ukraine, it’s not good for the people of the Donbas. So we should be exploring to see if there is something else that would be better.”

More than 10,000 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists broke out in early 2014.

Volker said the U.S. is still considering supplying lethal, defensive weapons to Ukraine’s military forces.

 

“I don’t have anything new to say on timing of this sort of thing [possibly selling lethal, defensive weapons to Ukraine],” he said. “But, I can say that it’s taken very seriously in the administration and there are people working very hard at it.”

Volker said the U.S. would seek progress in eastern Ukraine separate from the issue of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in March 2014.

“If we are able to make progress in one area  the Donbas  let’s do it. Let’s make progress, let’s see if we can get that territory back,” he said. “At the same that doesn’t change at all our refusal to accept the annexation of Crimea and grant any legitimacy to Russia’s actions.”

Budapest memorandum

The U.S. envoy acknowledged more should have been done to back up the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which was signed when he was a mid-level diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest and should have prevented Russia taking Crimea.

 

“The only country violating the Budapest Memorandum is Russia. So, France didn’t invade Ukraine. U.K. didn’t invade Ukraine. Only Russia invaded Ukraine,” Volker said.

Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in return for guarantees of territorial integrity and sovereignty under the deal signed by Russia, the U.K., and U.S. But, when Russian forces began taking over Ukraine’s Crimea military bases, none of those who signed the memorandum attempted to stop them.

 

“We should have done more immediately,” said Volker. “It’s important for Ukraine itself. It’s important for the principle that it establishes about non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. And, so, unfortunately, when Russia invaded, we didn’t do enough on that.”

The U.S. envoy said all that can been done now is go forward to help restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. “If we do that, we’ll be taking a step towards the fulfillment of Budapest,” he said.

Peacekeeping Forces

Volker, who President Donald Trump made special envoy in July, shot down suggestions that Russians could be among any peacekeepers deployed to Ukraine.

 

“I think the U.N. standards themselves are that neighboring countries should not be involved in peacekeeping in neighboring states,” he said. “And, certainly in this case since Russia has been a party to the conflict it would clearly not make sense.”

Despite much evidence to the contrary, the Kremlin maintains it is not involved in the military conflict in eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbas.

VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report.

Mexico City Gets Unsteadily Back on Its Feet After Quake

Mexico City’s infamous traffic jams were back on Monday as offices re-opened after last week’s deadly earthquake, but closed schools and clusters of homeless people served as  reminders that life in the megalopolis has not yet returned to normal.

The 7.1 quake on Sept. 19 killed at least 325 people and left thousands homeless, with many of them living in tents in the streets or emergency housing. Others among the 20 million people who live in greater Mexico City were gradually resuming their routines, however.

“You can’t say that everything has totally returned back to being normal, but we do feel more safe that we did last week,” said market researcher Diego Sandoval, 27, back at work in an office in trendy Condesa, one of the worst hit areas of town, and lining up at a taco stand with a dozen other office workers and laborers.

The most visible sign of the city coming back to life were the rush hour queues after a week of eerie quiet along the avenues and highways that criss-cross the capital, known for its gridlock.

“We just opened up today, getting things back on track.

We’ve been closed since the earthquake,” said Martha Bertha Martinez, 70, who along with her sister runs a small grocery store in Tlalpan, a southern neighborhood.

“Life goes on,” she said.

More than 44,000 schools in six states were due to reopen on Monday, but only 103 in Mexico City, or barely 1 percent of its schools, were set to resume classes after they were certified as structurally safe. Officials said they did not want to impede relief efforts, so more than 4,000 public schools and nearly as many private schools in the capital will remain closed for now.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico, with 350,000 students at campuses in and around Mexico City, resumed classes on Monday.

Of 6,000 damaged buildings, some 1,500 have yet to be inspected, said Horacio Urbano, president of Centro Urbano, a think tank specializing in urban issues and real estate.

Urbano said 10 percent of the damaged buildings were constructed after 1990, by which time strict building codes had been enacted in the wake of the 1985 earthquake that killed some 10,000 people.

Search for Survivors

Search operations for quake survivors in Mexico City were narrowed to five buildings, using advanced audio equipment to look for signs of life beneath tons of rubble, with help from teams from as far afield as Israel and Japan.

At a school in southern Mexico City where 19 children and six adults had previously been reported killed, officials recovered another body on Sunday, that of an adult women.

The search for survivors and bodies also carried on at a ruined office building in the Roma neighborhood and in a five-story apartment building in historic Tlalpan.

Even with offices and businesses opening up again, it will take months or years for neighborhoods like Condesa to recover emotionally and physically from the quake and aftershocks, with numerous residents packing up belongings and moving out.

“Our neighborhood is in mourning,” said Deborah Levy, 44, in Condesa. “Some neighbors and friends got together [Sunday]. We went to eat to cheer ourselves up, looking for a little normality.”

Florist Josue Castillo reopened the stall he has been tending for 15 years the day after the quake, “so people could see something pretty,” he said, between the ruins of buildings and cordoned off streets.

But he said residents and businesses still did not feel safe in the area, which became the heart of Mexico City’s hip revival over the past decade.

“People are leaving their homes and offices in Condesa.

Leaving with their families. It was horrible yesterday to see people filling their cars with belongings and moving elsewhere out of fear of aftershocks,” he said.

Venezuela Doctors in Protest Urge Stronger WHO Stance on Health Crisis

Venezuela’s doctors, fed up with what they called the World Health Organization’s passive attitude toward the country’s deep medical crisis, protested at the agency’s Caracas office on Monday to demand more pressure on the government and additional assistance.

Venezuela is suffering from a roughly 85 percent shortage of medicines, decrepit hospital infrastructure, and an exodus of doctors during a brutal recession.

Once-controlled diseases like diphtheria and measles have returned due in part to insufficient vaccines and antibiotics, while Venezuelans suffering chronic illnesses like cancer or diabetes often have to forgo treatment.

Malnutrition is also rising, doctors say.

Rare government data published in May showed maternal mortality shot up 65 percent while malaria cases jumped 76 percent. The former health minister was fired shortly after the bulletin’s publication, and it has not been issued since.

In the latest protest by an umbrella group of health associations, dozens of doctors and activists gathered at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the WHO’s regional office, urging the agency step up pressure on Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government and provide more aid during its 29th Pan American Sanitary Conference this week.

“There’s been a complicit attitude because they haven’t denounced things,” Dr. Rafael Muci said during the rally.

“This is an unlivable country, and no one is paying attention,” he said, adding he earns about $8 a month at a state hospital.

In a statement on Monday, PAHO stressed its main role was to provide “technical cooperation” and highlighted recent help in providing vaccines.

The Venezuelan government, which accuses activists of whipping up panic and the business elite of hiding medicines, did not respond to a request for comment.

Venezuelans seeking certain drugs often have to scour pharmacies, seek foreign donations or turn to social media.

Sociologist Maria Angelica Casanova, 51, has struggled to find psychiatric medicines for a year. “Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t. It’s serious,” she said, as passers-by shouted “Down with Maduro!”

Measles, which were controlled after a mass immunization in the 1990s, has returned to Venezuela’s jungle state of Bolivar, PAHO data show.

As the crisis stokes emigration, Venezuela’s health problems could be exported, doctors warned.

“We don’t know how many people who are emigrating could have some of these pathogens in incubation period,” said Andres Barreto, an epidemiologist who had participated in the measles vaccination drive.

Brazil to Reinstate Protection for Amazon Reserve

Brazil will reinstate a mining ban in a vast area of the Amazon rainforest, the government announced on Monday, in an about-face that is a victory for environmentalists who feared deforestation.

The Mines and Energy Ministry said in a statement that President Michel Temer’s administration had decided to revoke an August decree abolishing the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca), an area of roughly 17,800 square miles (46,100 square kilometers) or slightly larger than Denmark.

The decision will be published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday, officials said.

The reserve in the northern states of Amapá and Pará was established in 1984 to protect what are thought to be significant deposits of gold, copper, iron ore and other minerals from the perceived threat of foreign miners at the time.

The reserve covers a section of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, the preservation of which is seen as essential to soaking up carbon emissions responsible for global warming.

The government said it would revisit the issue in the future in a wider debate on the issue. “Brazil needs to grow and create jobs, attract mining investment and even tap the economic potential of the region,” the ministry statement said.

The government had argued that lifting the ban would be a boon to the economy and would allow better oversight of the area estimated to have 1,000 people illegally mining there.

Mining and Energy Minister Fernando Coelho Filho and other officials have maintained that the reserve merely applied to mining and that other protections for conservation areas and indigenous land inside Renca would remain.

But environmentalists argued that merely building roads or infrastructure in the area would bring deforestation and threaten biodiversity, with Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen tweeting against the decree.

“If carried out, the cancellation of the decree shows that, no matter how bad, there is no leader absolutely immune to public pressures,” Marcio Astrini, coordinator of public policy for environmental group Greenpeace, said in a statement.

“It is a victory of society over those who want to destroy and sell our forest.”

The government had steadily backtracked in the face of the criticism, legal action and efforts to overturn the decree in Congress. A judge also granted an injunction blocking the decree.

Turkish Court Frees 1 Journalist from Prison, Orders 4 Held

Turkey’s state-run news agency says a court in Istanbul has ordered a columnist for Turkey’s main opposition newspaper released from prison pending the conclusion of his trial.

Anadolu Agency reported that the court released Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gursel from pre-trial detention on Monday.

 

Anadolu says the court ruled that four other newspaper employees, including editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and investigative journalist Ahmet Sik, would remain in custody.

 

The trial was adjourned until Oct. 31.

Prosecutors have charged 19 Cumhuriyet employees with “sponsoring terror organizations” that include Kurdish militants and the network of the U.S.-based cleric the government blames for a coup attempt last year.   

 

Kemal Aydogdu, who did not work for Cumhuriyet and is suspected of using a Twitter handle critical of the government, also was ordered to stay in detention.

 

Top US NAFTA Negotiator Sees No Problem With Pace of Talks

The top U.S. negotiator at talks to modernize the NAFTA trade pact on Monday dismissed questions about why his team had so far failed to produce specific proposals on key issues, saying “I don’t see a problem.”

Officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada are in Ottawa for the third of seven planned rounds of talks. The U.S. delegation has yet to unveil its precise position on several points, prompting concerns the process to update the 1994 pact could drag on beyond the scheduled end-December finish.

“We’ve been working very hard so I don’t see a problem,” John Melle told reporters when pressed on the matter. “We’re moving across the board, so it’s very ambitious.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier predicted some tough days ahead for negotiators and declined to say whether he thought the talks could meet the deadline.

“The negotiations are still under way and of course there will be more difficult discussions in some cases than others,” he told a Toronto news conference.

He added: “The negotiations move forward at a certain pace and we respect that reality.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who frequently describes the treaty as a disaster, is threatening to walk away unless major changes are made.

Canada’s chief negotiator on Sunday said he did not expect the U.S. side to present detailed proposals in Ottawa on major issues such as dispute settlement, the dairy sector and tougher rules for North American content on autos.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland later told reporters that the three sides had made “solid progress” on topics such as electronic border forms and harmonization of regulations.

Pressed on the chances of finishing by the end of the year, she repeated earlier statements that “we want a good deal, not any deal.” Trade talks traditionally leave the toughest topics until the end, she added.

Canadian officials say it is still possible to meet the year-end deadline although they concede there are significant uncertainties about the timetable.

At his Toronto event, Trudeau repeated a promise to defend Canada’s system of tariffs and import restrictions designed to defend its dairy sector. The U.S. industry dislikes the measures.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, the three top officials driving the talks, will meet in Ottawa on Tuesday and Wednesday, the last two days of the third round.

Puerto Ricans Hunt for Precious Wi-Fi and Cell Signals

Margarita Aponte and her relatives cleared the road in front of her house with two oxen, then drove an hour from her devastated hometown in central Puerto Rico to the old telegraph building in the capital of San Juan.

There, thousands of Puerto Ricans gathered for a chance at a resource nearly as precious as power and water in the wake of Hurricane Maria — communication.

“It’s ringing, it’s ringing, it’s ringing!” Aponte, a janitor, screamed as her phone connected to free Wi-Fi and her Facetime call went through to the mainland on Sunday.

Her eyes filled with tears as she talked with nephews, uncles, brothers and sisters in Florida and Massachusetts for the first time since Maria destroyed nearly every cellphone and fiber optic connection on this U.S. territory of 3.4 million people.

The low murmur at one of two free Wi-Fi hot spots is occasionally interrupted by the cheering of someone getting through the largely jammed network. Most spend hours frowning at their phones, unable to connect.

“There’s no communication. We’re in God’s hands,” Yesenia Gomez, a kitchen worker, said as she left a message for her mother in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Finally … a signal 

Dozens of other Puerto Ricans opted to pull over to the side of the road along various highways where cellphone signals were strongest.

Carlos Ocasio, a maintenance worker, picked his way through tree branches and broken glass bottles as he found a spot with a good signal. Soon, he was able to reach his brother in New Jersey.

“My throat got a little choked up and I couldn’t talk for a minute,” he said. “They’re calling me from everywhere, asking when I’m going to arrive.”

Others in Puerto Rico and abroad called a local radio station to provide names, numbers, exact addresses and pictures of their loved ones in hopes of reconnecting.

‘Roller-coaster of emotion’ 

But for hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland, there has been only silence from the island.

Shirley Rodriguez, a resident of New York’s Brooklyn borough, said she has more than 30 relatives in Puerto Rico but she is especially concerned about her 66-year-old mother, Mildred Rodriguez, who has diabetes and pulmonary hypertension and lives in Hormigueros on the island’s west coast.

Rodriguez last spoke to her family before the storm and her relatives were planning on being together for it. Since then, calls to their cellphones have gone to voicemail.

“I’m absolutely numb at this point. It’s a roller-coaster of emotion,” she said. “Not knowing is extremely agonizing.”

Her mother-in-law is in the San Juan area and somehow managed to connect with someone who works for the mayor of Hormigueros, who was able to tell Rodriguez that the area where her parents live escaped flooding. But she still doesn’t know what the actual conditions are like.

Lack of communication

Some in Puerto Rico expressed anger over what they said was a lack of communication from cellphone providers about which towers were working so they could drive in that direction.

“They’re not giving us any information,” said Ricardo Castellanos, a business consultant. “We’re in a state of emergency.”

Castellanos visits the Wi-Fi hot spots twice a day to try to reach his two daughters in the central town of Gurabo and has been able to send a few pictures to friends on social media of the devastation the hurricane left behind.

As people continued to search for a connection in silence, some occasionally spoke up to offer unsolicited advice. “I didn’t move my phone around, and I got a signal,” said one woman to a man complaining that he was in a dead zone.

Nearby, retiree Sylvia Calero tapped her phone with impeccably manicured bright orange fingernails as she tried to reach three brothers and three grandchildren in the hard-hit coastal town of Aguadilla in northwest Puerto Rico. She spent an hour walking up and down the upscale Condado district unable to find a signal before driving to the free Wi-Fi hot spot.

“Zero communication,” she said.

Waiting to leave

Leaning against a boarded-up window, illustrator Avalon Clare from Colorado worried about getting off the island. She and her partner were supposed to fly out of Puerto Rico on Saturday but the flight was canceled.  It was rescheduled for Thursday, but Clare said she had no way to confirm whether that was still the case.

“The only think I can do is text,” she said. “We’re trying to leave because we can’t work without internet … We only have half a tank of gas. We’re running out of cash. It’s just getting harder.”

Jenniffer Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress, urged people to remain calm, noting that the towers of one cellphone provider that had constant coverage after the hurricane collapsed Sunday.

“Don’t become desperate,” she said, adding that if anyone was in danger, local officials would have been notified by now.

Towers are slowly being replaced

Only about 25 percent of towers were working in the San Juan metro area.

Cell service provider T-Mobile said it reached a deal with other providers to help reconnect their customers, saying callers should use the roaming data option to find a connection. Officials said customers would not be charged extra.

Claro was installing 40 generators to power up its towers, and expected 50 more generators to arrive from the Dominican Republic once a ferry from the neighboring island is operational.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello said a major underwater cable had been repaired, which would allow people to make long-distance calls and improve internet service. Two planes from Spain’s telephone company also arrived over the weekend to help re-establish services.

Success!!!

Persistence paid off for many who waited up to three hours to find a signal, including Wanda Nieves, a government worker who stood at one of the free Wi-Fi hot spots.

She heard about it on the radio and drove 30 minutes to reach the site. Nieves spoke to family in Florida and Michigan and did not plan to return for more calls or messages.

“We’ve already given signs of life,” she said. “Now we just wait for Puerto Rico to recover.”

 

Trump Administration Offering $200M in STEM and IT Study Grants

The Trump administration announced Monday that it would offer at least $200 million in grant funding annually for programs that offer science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and particularly computer science education.

 

With 6 million job openings in the United States, administration officials said it was making the pledge to extend computer science education because of a skills gap.

 

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump and an adviser to the administration, said less than half of kindergarten through 12th grade schools in the U.S. offer a single computer course. She plans to head to Detroit on Tuesday with tech leaders from Microsoft, Code.org and others.

 

“As a country we want to embrace innovation, but we need to plan for it,” she said.

 

The grant program is not new. President Trump was expected to sign a presidential memorandum on the program Monday at the White House, directing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to prioritize STEM education, with a focus on computer science, in existing competitive grant programs.  STEM education involves specific disciplines taught together in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.

 

The announcement is expected to be followed Tuesday with pledges from businesses, such as Google and Facebook.

Ivanka Trump noted that women make up 22 percent of the technology work force, down from 35 percent in 1990. While designing their programs, grant seekers should keep “gender and racial diversity in mind,” she said.

 

The program’s goal is to offer every student in the country access to technology education, said a senior administration official.

 

“We want it to reach across the country,” said the official. “Certainly that includes areas that are under-represented…We can’t allow our students to be left behind.”

German Far-right Pledges to ‘Reclaim Country’ as Merkel Begins Tough Coalition Talks

The Alternative for Germany party has pledged to use its platform in parliament to “reclaim the country and its people.” The AfD won nearly 14 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election, giving them 94 seats.

Many believed the turmoil of the 20th century had immunized Germany from a return of far-right politics, but Sunday’s result proved them wrong.

For the group’s opponents who gathered to protest the result in Berlin, the Alternative for Germany’s anti-migrant agenda has parallels with the Nazis’ rise to power.

“It is the first time since after the war that a racist and neo-Nazi party is in parliament,” said one protester. “So that is really worrying to us. And this reminds everyone of 1933.”

Jewish groups were among those expressing fear over the results.

The AfD’s co-leader, Alexander Gauland, has previously said Germans should be proud of their military’s achievements in World War II. However, at a news conference Monday, he denied the party is racist.

Gauland said there is nothing in the party or in its program that could or should disturb Jewish people in Germany. He said his pledge to “reclaim the country” is meant symbolically, adding he does “not want to lose Germany to an invasion of foreign people from foreign cultures.”

Analyst Professor Tanja Borzel of Berlin’s Free University says Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let close to a million migrants into Germany at the height of the migrant and refugee crisis in 2015 led many to punish her at the polls.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats won the highest number of votes Sunday, but gained their lowest share in 70 years.

“Most people who voted for the Alternative for Germany did not vote for the party because they share the platform. It was a protest vote, clearly,” Borzel said.

The far-right’s success overshadowed Merkel’s win, which gives her a fourth term in power.

She told supporters Monday that her aspiration is to win the AfD voters back through good politics and problem solving.

Her first problem is forming a government. The second-placed Social Democrats have ruled out working together, so Merkel’s best option is likely a coalition with the Liberals and the Greens that could take months, Borzel says.

“It will be very hard to find a compromise on issues such as migration and refugees, but also climate change,” Borzel said. “So, we are looking at probably some lengthy negotiations.”

The AfD, meanwhile, has pledged to use its new platform in parliament to, in its words, “hunt down” Merkel and reclaim the country.